ON the morning of a fine June day my first bonny little nursling,and the last of the ancient Earnshaw stock, was born. We were busywith the hay in a far-away field, when the girl that usuallybrought our breakfasts came running an hour too soon across themeadow and up the lane, calling me as she ran.

'Oh, such a grand bairn!' she panted out. 'The finest lad thatever breathed! But the doctor says missis must go: he says she'sbeen in a consumption these many months. I heard him tell Mr.Hindley: and now she has nothing to keep her, and she'll be deadbefore winter. You must come home directly. You're to nurse it,Nelly: to feed it with sugar and milk, and take care of it day andnight. I wish I were you, because it will be all yours when thereis no missis!'

'But is she very ill?' I asked, flinging down my rake and tying mybonnet.

'I guess she is; yet she looks bravely,' replied the girl, 'and shetalks as if she thought of living to see it grow a man. She's outof her head for joy, it's such a beauty! If I were her I'm certainI should not die: I should get better at the bare sight of it, inspite of Kenneth. I was fairly mad at him. Dame Archer broughtthe cherub down to master, in the house, and his face just began tolight up, when the old croaker steps forward, and says he -"Earnshaw, it's a blessing your wife has been spared to leave youthis son. When she came, I felt convinced we shouldn't keep herlong; and now, I must tell you, the winter will probably finishher. Don't take on, and fret about it too much: it can't behelped. And besides, you should have known better than to choosesuch a rush of a lass!"'

'And what did the master answer?' I inquired.

'I think he swore: but I didn't mind him, I was straining to seethe bairn,' and she began again to describe it rapturously. I, aszealous as herself, hurried eagerly home to admire, on my part;though I was very sad for Hindley's sake. He had room in his heartonly for two idols - his wife and himself: he doted on both, andadored one, and I couldn't conceive how he would bear the loss.

When we got to Wuthering Heights, there he stood at the front door;and, as I passed in, I asked, 'how was the baby?'

'Nearly ready to run about, Nell!' he replied, putting on acheerful smile.

'And the mistress?' I ventured to inquire; 'the doctor says she's -'

'Damn the doctor!' he interrupted, reddening. 'Frances is quiteright: she'll be perfectly well by this time next week. Are yougoing up-stairs? will you tell her that I'll come, if she'llpromise not to talk. I left her because she would not hold hertongue; and she must - tell her Mr. Kenneth says she must bequiet.'

I delivered this message to Mrs. Earnshaw; she seemed in flightyspirits, and replied merrily, 'I hardly spoke a word, Ellen, andthere he has gone out twice, crying. Well, say I promise I won'tspeak: but that does not bind me not to laugh at him!'

Poor soul! Till within a week of her death that gay heart neverfailed her; and her husband persisted doggedly, nay, furiously, inaffirming her health improved every day. When Kenneth warned himthat his medicines were useless at that stage of the malady, and heneedn't put him to further expense by attending her, he retorted,'I know you need not - she's well - she does not want any moreattendance from you! She never was in a consumption. It was afever; and it is gone: her pulse is as slow as mine now, and hercheek as cool.'

He told his wife the same story, and she seemed to believe him; butone night, while leaning on his shoulder, in the act of saying shethought she should be able to get up to-morrow, a fit of coughingtook her - a very slight one - he raised her in his arms; she puther two hands about his neck, her face changed, and she was dead.

As the girl had anticipated, the child Hareton fell wholly into myhands. Mr. Earnshaw, provided he saw him healthy and never heardhim cry, was contented, as far as regarded him. For himself, hegrew desperate: his sorrow was of that kind that will not lament.He neither wept nor prayed; he cursed and defied: execrated Godand man, and gave himself up to reckless dissipation. The servantscould not bear his tyrannical and evil conduct long: Joseph and Iwere the only two that would stay. I had not the heart to leave mycharge; and besides, you know, I had been his foster-sister, andexcused his behaviour more readily than a stranger would. Josephremained to hector over tenants and labourers; and because it washis vocation to be where he had plenty of wickedness to reprove.

The master's bad ways and bad companions formed a pretty examplefor Catherine and Heathcliff. His treatment of the latter wasenough to make a fiend of a saint. And, truly, it appeared as ifthe lad WERE possessed of something diabolical at that period. Hedelighted to witness Hindley degrading himself past redemption; andbecame daily more notable for savage sullenness and ferocity. Icould not half tell what an infernal house we had. The curatedropped calling, and nobody decent came near us, at last; unlessEdgar Linton's visits to Miss Cathy might be an exception. Atfifteen she was the queen of the country-side; she had no peer; andshe did turn out a haughty, headstrong creature! I own I did notlike her, after infancy was past; and I vexed her frequently bytrying to bring down her arrogance: she never took an aversion tome, though. She had a wondrous constancy to old attachments: evenHeathcliff kept his hold on her affections unalterably; and youngLinton, with all his superiority, found it difficult to make anequally deep impression. He was my late master: that is hisportrait over the fireplace. It used to hang on one side, and hiswife's on the other; but hers has been removed, or else you mightsee something of what she was. Can you make that out?

Mrs. Dean raised the candle, and I discerned a soft-featured face,exceedingly resembling the young lady at the Heights, but morepensive and amiable in expression. It formed a sweet picture. Thelong light hair curled slightly on the temples; the eyes were largeand serious; the figure almost too graceful. I did not marvel howCatherine Earnshaw could forget her first friend for such anindividual. I marvelled much how he, with a mind to correspondwith his person, could fancy my idea of Catherine Earnshaw.

'A very agreeable portrait,' I observed to the house-keeper. 'Isit like?'

'Yes,' she answered; 'but he looked better when he was animated;that is his everyday countenance: he wanted spirit in general.'

Catherine had kept up her acquaintance with the Lintons since herfive-weeks' residence among them; and as she had no temptation toshow her rough side in their company, and had the sense to beashamed of being rude where she experienced such invariablecourtesy, she imposed unwittingly on the old lady and gentleman byher ingenious cordiality; gained the admiration of Isabella, andthe heart and soul of her brother: acquisitions that flattered herfrom the first - for she was full of ambition - and led her toadopt a double character without exactly intending to deceive anyone. In the place where she heard Heathcliff termed a 'vulgaryoung ruffian,' and 'worse than a brute,' she took care not to actlike him; but at home she had small inclination to practisepoliteness that would only be laughed at, and restrain an unrulynature when it would bring her neither credit nor praise.

Mr. Edgar seldom mustered courage to visit Wuthering Heightsopenly. He had a terror of Earnshaw's reputation, and shrunk fromencountering him; and yet he was always received with our bestattempts at civility: the master himself avoided offending him,knowing why he came; and if he could not be gracious, kept out ofthe way. I rather think his appearance there was distasteful toCatherine; she was not artful, never played the coquette, and hadevidently an objection to her two friends meeting at all; for whenHeathcliff expressed contempt of Linton in his presence, she couldnot half coincide, as she did in his absence; and when Lintonevinced disgust and antipathy to Heathcliff, she dared not treathis sentiments with indifference, as if depreciation of herplaymate were of scarcely any consequence to her. I've had many alaugh at her perplexities and untold troubles, which she vainlystrove to hide from my mockery. That sounds ill-natured: but shewas so proud it became really impossible to pity her distresses,till she should be chastened into more humility. She did bringherself, finally, to confess, and to confide in me: there was nota soul else that she might fashion into an adviser.

Mr. Hindley had gone from home one afternoon, and Heathcliffpresumed to give himself a holiday on the strength of it. He hadreached the age of sixteen then, I think, and without having badfeatures, or being deficient in intellect, he contrived to conveyan impression of inward and outward repulsiveness that his presentaspect retains no traces of. In the first place, he had by thattime lost the benefit of his early education: continual hard work,begun soon and concluded late, had extinguished any curiosity heonce possessed in pursuit of knowledge, and any love for books orlearning. His childhood's sense of superiority, instilled into himby the favours of old Mr. Earnshaw, was faded away. He struggledlong to keep up an equality with Catherine in her studies, andyielded with poignant though silent regret: but he yieldedcompletely; and there was no prevailing on him to take a step inthe way of moving upward, when he found he must, necessarily, sinkbeneath his former level. Then personal appearance sympathisedwith mental deterioration: he acquired a slouching gait andignoble look; his naturally reserved disposition was exaggeratedinto an almost idiotic excess of unsociable moroseness; and he tooka grim pleasure, apparently, in exciting the aversion rather thanthe esteem of his few acquaintance.

Catherine and he were constant companions still at his seasons ofrespite from labour; but he had ceased to express his fondness forher in words, and recoiled with angry suspicion from her girlishcaresses, as if conscious there could be no gratification inlavishing such marks of affection on him. On the before-namedoccasion he came into the house to announce his intention of doingnothing, while I was assisting Miss Cathy to arrange her dress:she had not reckoned on his taking it into his head to be idle; andimagining she would have the whole place to herself, she managed,by some means, to inform Mr. Edgar of her brother's absence, andwas then preparing to receive him.

'Cathy, are you busy this afternoon?' asked Heathcliff. 'Are yougoing anywhere?'

'No, it is raining,' she answered.

'Why have you that silk frock on, then?' he said. 'Nobody cominghere, I hope?'

'Not that I know of,' stammered Miss: 'but you should be in thefield now, Heathcliff. It is an hour past dinnertime: I thoughtyou were gone.'

'Hindley does not often free us from his accursed presence,'observed the boy. 'I'll not work any more to-day: I'll stay withyou.'

'Oh, but Joseph will tell,' she suggested; 'you'd better go!'

'Joseph is loading lime on the further side of Penistone Crags; itwill take him till dark, and he'll never know.'

So, saying, he lounged to the fire, and sat down. Catherinereflected an instant, with knitted brows - she found it needful tosmooth the way for an intrusion. 'Isabella and Edgar Linton talkedof calling this afternoon,' she said, at the conclusion of aminute's silence. 'As it rains, I hardly expect them; but they maycome, and if they do, you run the risk of being scolded for nogood.'

'Order Ellen to say you are engaged, Cathy,' he persisted; 'don'tturn me out for those pitiful, silly friends of yours! I'm on thepoint, sometimes, of complaining that they - but I'll not - '

'That they what?' cried Catherine, gazing at him with a troubledcountenance. 'Oh, Nelly!' she added petulantly, jerking her headaway from my hands, 'you've combed my hair quite out of curl!That's enough; let me alone. What are you on the point ofcomplaining about, Heathcliff?'

'Nothing - only look at the almanack on that wall;' he pointed to aframed sheet hanging near the window, and continued, 'The crossesare for the evenings you have spent with the Lintons, the dots forthose spent with me. Do you see? I've marked every day.'

'Yes - very foolish: as if I took notice!' replied Catherine, in apeevish tone. 'And where is the sense of that?'

'To show that I DO take notice,' said Heathcliff.

'And should I always be sitting with you?' she demanded, growingmore irritated. 'What good do I get? What do you talk about? Youmight be dumb, or a baby, for anything you say to amuse me, or foranything you do, either!'

'You never told me before that I talked too little, or that youdisliked my company, Cathy!' exclaimed Heathcliff, in muchagitation.

'It's no company at all, when people know nothing and say nothing,'she muttered.

Her companion rose up, but he hadn't time to express his feelingsfurther, for a horse's feet were heard on the flags, and havingknocked gently, young Linton entered, his face brilliant withdelight at the unexpected summon she had received. DoubtlessCatherine marked the difference between her friends, as one came inand the other went out. The contrast resembled what you see inexchanging a bleak, hilly, coal country for a beautiful fertilevalley; and his voice and greeting were as opposite as his aspect.He had a sweet, low manner of speaking, and pronounced his words asyou do: that's less gruff than we talk here, and softer.

'I'm not come too soon, am I?' he said, casting a look at me: Ihad begun to wipe the plate, and tidy some drawers at the far endin the dresser.

'No,' answered Catherine. 'What are you doing there, Nelly?'

'My work, Miss,' I replied. (Mr. Hindley had given me directionsto make a third party in any private visits Linton chose to pay.)

She stepped behind me and whispered crossly, 'Take yourself andyour dusters off; when company are in the house, servants don'tcommence scouring and cleaning in the room where they are!'

'It's a good opportunity, now that master is away,' I answeredaloud: 'he hates me to be fidgeting over these things in hispresence. I'm sure Mr. Edgar will excuse me.'

'I hate you to be fidgeting in MY presence,' exclaimed the younglady imperiously, not allowing her guest time to speak: she hadfailed to recover her equanimity since the little dispute withHeathcliff.

'I'm sorry for it, Miss Catherine,' was my response; and Iproceeded assiduously with my occupation.

She, supposing Edgar could not see her, snatched the cloth from myhand, and pinched me, with a prolonged wrench, very spitefully onthe arm. I've said I did not love her, and rather relishedmortifying her vanity now and then: besides, she hurt meextremely; so I started up from my knees, and screamed out, 'Oh,Miss, that's a nasty trick! You have no right to nip me, and I'mnot going to bear it.'

'I didn't touch you, you lying creature!' cried she, her fingerstingling to repeat the act, and her ears red with rage. She neverhad power to conceal her passion, it always set her wholecomplexion in a blaze.

'What's that, then?' I retorted, showing a decided purple witnessto refute her.

She stamped her foot, wavered a moment, and then, irresistiblyimpelled by the naughty spirit within her, slapped me on the cheek:a stinging blow that filled both eyes with water.

'Catherine, love! Catherine!' interposed Linton, greatly shockedat the double fault of falsehood and violence which his idol hadcommitted.

'Leave the room, Ellen!' she repeated, trembling all over.

Little Hareton, who followed me everywhere, and was sitting near meon the floor, at seeing my tears commenced crying himself, andsobbed out complaints against 'wicked aunt Cathy,' which drew herfury on to his unlucky head: she seized his shoulders, and shookhim till the poor child waxed livid, and Edgar thoughtlessly laidhold of her hands to deliver him. In an instant one was wrungfree, and the astonished young man felt it applied over his own earin a way that could not be mistaken for jest. He drew back inconsternation. I lifted Hareton in my arms, and walked off to thekitchen with him, leaving the door of communication open, for I wascurious to watch how they would settle their disagreement. Theinsulted visitor moved to the spot where he had laid his hat, paleand with a quivering lip.

'That's right!' I said to myself. 'Take warning and begone! It'sa kindness to let you have a glimpse of her genuine disposition.'

'Where are you going?' demanded Catherine, advancing to the door.

He swerved aside, and attempted to pass.

'You must not go!' she exclaimed, energetically.

'I must and shall!' he replied in a subdued voice.

'No,' she persisted, grasping the handle; 'not yet, Edgar Linton:sit down; you shall not leave me in that temper. I should bemiserable all night, and I won't be miserable for you!'

'Can I stay after you have struck me?' asked Linton.

Catherine was mute.

'You've made me afraid and ashamed of you,' he continued; 'I'll notcome here again!'

Her eyes began to glisten and her lids to twinkle.

'And you told a deliberate untruth!' he said.

'I didn't!' she cried, recovering her speech; 'I did nothingdeliberately. Well, go, if you please - get away! And now I'llcry - I'll cry myself sick!'

She dropped down on her knees by a chair, and set to weeping inserious earnest. Edgar persevered in his resolution as far as thecourt; there he lingered. I resolved to encourage him.

'Miss is dreadfully wayward, sir,' I called out. 'As bad as anymarred child: you'd better be riding home, or else she will besick, only to grieve us.'

The soft thing looked askance through the window: he possessed thepower to depart as much as a cat possesses the power to leave amouse half killed, or a bird half eaten. Ah, I thought, there willbe no saving him: he's doomed, and flies to his fate! And so itwas: he turned abruptly, hastened into the house again, shut thedoor behind him; and when I went in a while after to inform themthat Earnshaw had come home rabid drunk, ready to pull the wholeplace about our ears (his ordinary frame of mind in thatcondition), I saw the quarrel had merely effected a closer intimacy- had broken the outworks of youthful timidity, and enabled them toforsake the disguise of friendship, and confess themselves lovers.

Intelligence of Mr. Hindley's arrival drove Linton speedily to hishorse, and Catherine to her chamber. I went to hide littleHareton, and to take the shot out of the master's fowling-piece,which he was fond of playing with in his insane excitement, to thehazard of the lives of any who provoked, or even attracted hisnotice too much; and I had hit upon the plan of removing it, thathe might do less mischief if he did go the length of firing thegun.